Ad authorities told to try again in raucous council meeting

Published: Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 5:25 p.m.

Volusia County Council members did the budgetary equivalent of sending the county’s advertising authorities to bed without its supper. And who could blame them?

At a surprisingly contentious meeting Thursday, the council rejected the budgets of all three advertising authority and told the groups to get with the program.

Volusia County’s ad authorities are funded by the local bed tax, which is the charge visitors see toward the bottom of their hotel bill. It’s the most popular kind of tax, mostly paid by people from somewhere else. The ad authorities use the proceeds to promote the area.

Or rather, promote the areas – emphasis on the plural.

The three advertising authorities represent West Volusia, Southeast Volusia and the central coastal part of the county. Each has a full-time executive director and a governing board. Which means we have 25 board members, three directors and a seven-member County Council all overseeing promotional spending in Volusia. All those people involved and yet we’re always shocked that area promotional efforts seem unfocused, fragmented and directionless.

In the heavily competitive world of tourism promotion, Volusia County’s strategy is to divide its money into three piles and pretend the three parts of the county have nothing to do with each other.

Unsurprisingly, the County Council, which oversees these boards, has asked them to try to come up with a few things on which they might cooperate. And maybe even do a little market research so promotional efforts might be based on actual data about how visitors behave instead of a mix of outdated studies, gut feelings and how-we’ve-always-done-it rules of thumb.

Did the ad authorities do these things? Not noticeably.

So the council was within its rights to refuse to sign off on the budgets and tell the ad authorities’ reps not to bother with their PowerPoint presentations. Better go back and try again.

And doing that on a unanimous vote would have sent a strong message from a united council.

Would have except that immediately after the vote, District 2 Council Member Josh Wagner got snarky with District 4 Member Doug Daniels over relations between the Ocean Center and the Halifax Ad Authority.

“Wow, you guys are the laughingstock of the state. What a waste!” said Wagner with a bitter laugh.

Which, of course, is untrue. This is Florida. A government has to do something pretty flamboyant and possibly illegal to achieve anything close to laughingstock status here.

Daniels objected and Wagner responded by asking, “You want to go toe to toe on the record? I’ll go toe to toe with you in public.”

Wagner, however, stopped short of challenging him to a fight in the playground behind the cafeteria.

With this level of debate, it makes it difficult to see how it’s ever going to resolve.

<p>Volusia County Council members did the budgetary equivalent of sending the county's advertising authorities to bed without its supper. And who could blame them?</p><p>At a surprisingly contentious meeting Thursday, the council rejected the budgets of all three advertising authority and told the groups to get with the program.</p><p>Volusia County's ad authorities are funded by the local bed tax, which is the charge visitors see toward the bottom of their hotel bill. It's the most popular kind of tax, mostly paid by people from somewhere else. The ad authorities use the proceeds to promote the area. </p><p>Or rather, promote the areas – emphasis on the plural.</p><p>The three advertising authorities represent West Volusia, Southeast Volusia and the central coastal part of the county. Each has a full-time executive director and a governing board. Which means we have 25 board members, three directors and a seven-member County Council all overseeing promotional spending in Volusia. All those people involved and yet we're always shocked that area promotional efforts seem unfocused, fragmented and directionless.</p><p>In the heavily competitive world of tourism promotion, Volusia County's strategy is to divide its money into three piles and pretend the three parts of the county have nothing to do with each other. </p><p>Unsurprisingly, the County Council, which oversees these boards, has asked them to try to come up with a few things on which they might cooperate. And maybe even do a little market research so promotional efforts might be based on actual data about how visitors behave instead of a mix of outdated studies, gut feelings and how-we've-always-done-it rules of thumb.</p><p>Did the ad authorities do these things? Not noticeably.</p><p>So the council was within its rights to refuse to sign off on the budgets and tell the ad authorities' reps not to bother with their PowerPoint presentations. Better go back and try again.</p><p>And doing that on a unanimous vote would have sent a strong message from a united council.</p><p>Would have except that immediately after the vote, District 2 Council Member Josh Wagner got snarky with District 4 Member Doug Daniels over relations between the Ocean Center and the Halifax Ad Authority.</p><p>“Wow, you guys are the laughingstock of the state. What a waste!” said Wagner with a bitter laugh.</p><p>Which, of course, is untrue. This is Florida. A government has to do something pretty flamboyant and possibly illegal to achieve anything close to laughingstock status here.</p><p>Daniels objected and Wagner responded by asking, “You want to go toe to toe on the record? I'll go toe to toe with you in public.”</p><p>Wagner, however, stopped short of challenging him to a fight in the playground behind the cafeteria.</p><p>With this level of debate, it makes it difficult to see how it's ever going to resolve.</p>